A five-year-old girl from north London has been fined £1,000 and threatened with court appearances after she was caught ‘fly-tipping’.
Harrow Council’s Environmental Enforcement Team told the girl’s father they caught her in the act.
But the dad has argued that she is in fact five-years-old, and trying to fine her was ‘absurd’.
The council first sent a letter on November 20 saying the child was ‘witnessed by a uniformed officer… committing the offence of fly-tipping’.
It has since come to light no officer actually saw it, but instead parcel packing with the girl’s name on it was found a street away from her home address.
The girl’s dad, who wishes to remain anonymous to protect his child’s identity, said the packaging would have ended up down the street due to the overflowing communal bins in the area.
He told the Local Democracy Reporting Service LDRS: ‘This FPN was addressed to my five-year-old daughter, notifying her that a £1,000 fine had to be paid due to a fly-tipping offence she supposedly committed.
‘I am seriously concerned about the financial impact of this fine and it causing my daughter undue stress for her age.’
The girl’s dad has tried to appeal the fine through the council’s website, but has so far had no success.
He even attended a council advice session but he claims he was told to report it online.
He said: ‘I sent an email to the specified address but it bounced.
‘I called the council and after a 40-minute wait was put on to someone, who told me that they could do nothing about this and then hung up.’
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The Enforcement Team has since sent a ‘final reminder’ letter, warning they were ‘about to instruct the council’s legal team to start court proceedings’.
The fine was raised at a council meeting, where Harrow Council leader Cllr Paul Osborn said: ‘I’d like to find a child who could afford to pay a £1,000 fine at five years old.
‘Obviously that is totally unacceptable and we will look into any of those accusations.’
Harrow Council has since confirmed the fine has now been rescinded.
They said: ‘The Fixed Penalty Notice (FPN) resulted from investigation of waste that had been fly-tipped; the age of the individual was not known.
‘However, the FPN should have been cancelled on appeal.
‘APCOA has already contacted the family concerned to apologise and confirm that the FPN has been cancelled.
‘We have also taken steps to avoid a similar situation recurring as this case has not met our usual high standards of service.’
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